It was announced today that Manchester City have loaned out United States No. 1 Zack Steffen to Fortuna Dusseldorf for the season. Steffen, who joined City from Major League Soccer side Columbus Crew in December (and was immediately loaned back to the MLS side) for a fee that was reportedly between £7 million and £10m, is coming off a very stellar showing in the 2019 Gold Cup.
In helping the USMNT to the tournament final, which resulted in a 1-0 loss to Mexico, Steffen featured in five of six matches and conceded just twice. He kept a clean sheet up until the semifinal round.
Hier möchte jemand ein paar Worte an Euch richten… #f95 pic.twitter.com/WJNKAFd2s1
— Fortuna Düsseldorf (@f95) July 9, 2019
Steffen, 24, was a part of USA Coach Gregg Berhalter’s ambitions this tournament- the objective of getting the younger guys a chance to play and develop.
“I am happy to be coming back to Germany and be joining such a historic club,” the statement in the tweet above reads when translated into English.
Steffen came up through the youth ranks at SC Freiburg before heading to Columbus in 2016. In 2018, he won the MLS goalkeeper of the year award.
However, there is no real hope for him to get any significant playing time at City right now, with Ederson and Claudio Bravo in the picture. Daniel Gremshaw has potential, and could be in the mix as well.
Instead he’ll challenge the 35-year-old Michael Rensing and Raphael Wolf for the starting spot in between the sticks at Dusseldorf; who finished 10th in the Bundesliga last season.
It was an impressive year for the side, who were newly promoted to the German top flight.
Fortuna Sporting Director Lutz Pfannenstiel said of Zack Steffen:
“His technique is well-trained, he is strong in the one-on-one situation and is an outstanding footballer. Manchester City made the decision to sign him to a long-term deal for a reason.”
Pfannenstiel also extolled the virtues of Steffen as “a modern keeper with a full skill-set.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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